Facebook IPO rumored to arrive in May

Shares in Facebook are expected to hit the market in May after years of speculation regarding the social media network’s plans to go public with its stock.

The new, unofficial report on Facebook’s initial public offering arrives via All Things D, which cites numerous anonymous sources in making the claim of a late-May launch for the IPO. If Facebook does indeed plan to go public in the third week of May, it will need to file its IPO paperwork soon — so we could have confirmation one way or the other shortly.

The social media network’s IPO is expected to be one of the largest tech launches in history, with the initial report predicting a $10 billion offering. Such an offering would put the company value at $100 billion, behind Apple’s $390 billion but well ahead of Amazon ($81 billion) and Hewlett-Packard ($52 billion).

Facebook’s user base currently numbers around 800 million people, but is expected to hit 1 billion by the end of the year.

Facebook representatives have declined to comment on the late-May IPO launch report.